Its Friday and I don’t expect much big news today so I want to take the time to look at the Carputer / CarPC market with this report on the subject. [modified from the original article that appeared in the Carrypad journal.]
I’ve had some first hand experience of using a ultra mobile PC in a car (here’s a series of posts I made previously about the Vega as a Carputer) and I found the experience exciting to say the least. I hate my old 6-CD player (12 tracks on a disk is so 90’s darling) and having access to a cache of good MP3, some videos and a GPS system is a dream come true. The market is still very fresh but I’ve been watching it carefully and 2006 has been an active year. Here’s a short video of the Raon Digital Vega ultra mobile PC in action with In Car Terminal software.
The three posts today will be:
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Overview of current carputer / carpc market. Self-build. Power and size problems.
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UMPCs in the Carputer market. Pros cons. Alternative solutions. Smartphones, PDAs, PMP/Navi devices.
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Carputer Resources. Websites, videos, forums, vendors.
Let start with the…
Overview.
A Carputer or Carpc is just that! Its a PC that is small enough to be placed in a car and used for audio, video, navigation, engine monitoring (telematics), reversing cameras, Internet access, security, tracking, digital radio, digital TV, phone control, radar alert and more.
The Carputer term has been around for some years (Google groups references go back to 2000.) but the start of the digital music revolution brought a whole new reason for having computing power in the car. Since then, navigation and passenger video have been a big driving factor.
Most of the Carputer market seems to be enthusiast driven at the moment but with the advent of Navigation-equipped pocket PCs, other people are being introduced to the concept.
One of the major problems for the enthusiasts has been power and heat. PC’s with rotating disks have always been relatively power-hungry, large and hot and this presents engineering challenges for the enthusiast. The Mini-ITX form factor and Epia boards introduced by VIA helped a lot but these are still self-build options.
A few companies are now starting to produce car-ready PCs and the ultra mobile PC tablet form factor has become an interesting option during 2006. New software is being developed at a faster rate and even traditional software packages for PC’s are being re-developed to fit a small and touch-enabled screen. Streets and Trips 2007 (Autoroute 2007 in Europe) is one example of a mainstream software package that has been developed with touchscreen in mind.
In Sept 2006, Volkswagen announced their partnership with Intel and demonstrated a UMPC-enabled carputer. In this case, the ultra mobile PC was not the carputer but it was used as a kind of thin-client controller for the built-in carputer. The built-in carputer will become a new sales tool and slowly we’ll see carputers trickle down into mainstream cars just as air conditioning and navigation has done but there is some regulatory activity building up which will slow down this process. The University of Michigan is doing a lot of research into this area at the moment. In the meantime, there’s a huge number of people wanting solutions in their cars, trucks, lorries, and road trains. The popular forum MP3car.com has nearly 50,000 members. That’s way more than any ultra mobile PC forum has right now!
So could UMPCs pay a big role in the Carputer industry or will it be smartphones and built-in devices that take the large share of the market?
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So will the ultra mobile PC make a good carputer? Has it got all the elements of design, aftermarket support, software and value to make it the ideal candidate or are there other, better, cheaper options?
Lists are always good so here’s a brain dump of requirements for a Carputer.
- 5-7″ light-touch screen. (8″ and more gets too big for in and on-dash mounting in most cars. Trucks and lorries are a different matter. *1)
- Mounting solutions
- Dual-head capability (videos in the back, navigation in the front.)
- CPU power for the latest navigation and overlay software
- Windows XP base OS. (navigation support on Linux is almost non-existent. Most overlay software is for XP)
- Bright screen
- Large disc for video library
- Bluetooth A2DP support
- Audio-out
- Programmable buttons
- Removable (for security.
- Lightweight (unless being built in)
- 10-15V DC input capability
- Auto shutdown
- Auto startup? (you need external hardware for this but I think you can use the WOL header or wake on keyboard signal somehow)
- USB port for peripherals (Cam, GPS, remote control)
- Built in GPS (although some cars need a remote GPS solution due to UV filters in the screen.)
- 3/3.5G Cellular radio (depending on mobile phone. Tethering is possible via Bluetooth.)
- Remote control.
Now lets list some of the devices we could use.
- PocketPC
- Smartphone
- ultra mobile PC
- Self-build (e.g. Mini-ITX)
- Mini-PC (e.g. Mac Mini or similar.)
- PMP
- Navigation device
- Built-in unit.
You can ignore the PocketPC and Smartphone for any serious Carputer project. Although I use a pocket PC for navigation and audio in my car, you don’t get the video capability, expandability or screen sizes needed.
A PMP is a nice solution to the screen size problem. There are even PMPs starting to appear with navigation and cellular radios on board. The problem is with PMPs is that they are all different and in 2 years they will probably all have the functionality of a 2006 UMPC. I would stear clear of a PMP for any long-term solution.
The same goes for the dash-navigation unit. Unless its built on a ultra mobile PC platform, there’s not much hope of exanding it to support other things.
A built-in or slot-in dedicated unit is lovely. Easy to use. Tidy. But often lacking the capability that you didnt know you needed when you bought it. There’s no upgrade path at all and they are damn expensive.
This leaves three options. The mini-PC option is a good one and although many of them come with way too much power (and power drain) they make a tidy solution that can be tucked away somewhere in the rear of the car or under the seat. The mini-itx self-build option is even better. Here you get the chance to replace the hard disk, hard wire the power, add video outputs and grow the system into a monster. I think this is the main appeal of the self build option. Both of these options will require an external touchscreen which bumps the cost up significantly. They also require some nightmare wiring looms!
And then we have the UMPC. Its a self-contained screen + mini-PC with enough power and interfacing options to satisfy most carputer requirements. In fact, there isn’t one thing on the list above that the ultra mobile PC can’t do. Oh hold on. There’s the lack of mounting solutions but at least we’re hearing that people are working on it.
Take a look at the unique advantages.
- Cable free possibility. (Bluetooth is your friend)
- Removable
- Useable as notebook, desktop, mobile PC.
- Good value (if you consider fitting time/costs)
And the disadvantages.
- Relatively large screen unit.
- Cost (although this is becoming less of an issue.)
- Processing power (for multi-head navigation/video scenarios it could be tight but this is changing.)
- Fixed casing option.
OK. There my case for UMPCs as Carputers. I’m sure there are things I’ve missed so feel free to comment. There was one thing I though I might include but for in the interests of safety I didnt. Don’t try and use devices with keyboards (notebooks) in the car. Even ultra mobile ones are ultra dangerous!
*1. I’d love to hear about anyone who uses a ultra mobile PC as a trucking companion. When I drive on the Autobahns in the evenings I see hundreds and hundreds of lorries all parked up for an overnight stop. I don’t know what they get up to behind their curtains (and I don’t want to know!) but I guess there’s a fair bit of entertainment value in a navigation/audio device that serves as internet-connected portable computer and video player in the evenings.
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Which ultra mobile PC makes a good carputer?
My immediate thought is the ASUS R2H. Its got the built-in GPS and is the most likely to get a good set of in-car accessories for it due to the way its being sold. However, its got a heavy-touch screen that might not be the best for in-car use.
I prefer the lightweight touch of the i7200 series for in-car use.
A 7″ screen may not be the best choice for some smaller cars though. In my car I have found the 4.2″ Vega to be the best choice. For Internet access I need to have the Bluetooth module plugged in but it’s not a major issue considering I have an audio cable trailing across the dashboard. The only problem with the Vega is that it hasn’t got DirectX support so software like Streetdeck doesn’t work. I use ‘In Car Terminal’ with it.
2 devices that are in the pipeline and ones that I’m watching out for are the Mobits X-15 with a 5.6″ screen and the UREN V1 dedicated carputer. The Uren is particularly interesting as its effectively a ultra mobile PC built to perform as a Carputer. Its a Korean product though so it may not appear outside that region.
A device I haven’t looked at as a carputer until very recently is the Nokia 770 Tablet. Nokia are making a Navigation package available for the device. There’s no pricing and at the moment its for Europe only but it looks like a nice way to convert the 770 into a navigation device. Its very low-end as far as carputers are concerned though.
Carputer Software
There’s one software package that is moving ahead very quickly. Streetdeck. It was born out of the MP3car website and has apparently received funding. Its also had some very nice promotional slots with Intel. There’s even a case study on the Intel website now.
As GottaBeMobile pointed out earlier today, the software has a lot of functionality although the navigational aspect is currently aimed at the North American market. A European version is in beta.
It’s not cheap. You’re paying $200 for software that still under heavy development but it still appears to be a well finished product and shows the way forward.
Interesting reads related to Streetdeck:
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Terry Gold Blog (He’s using the product shown above. Over $2000 worth!)
One, slightly simpler, software package is In Car Terminal. This is one that I used on the Vega. You get the software for about $70 which gives you a nice interface for controlling audio and video. You get a basic GPS speedometer and a few bits of other information. Navigation is only available by using back-end software. The same is true of the mobile phone integration so there’s some extra costs to be taken into consideration.
If you don’t need some of the advanced features of Streetdeck, its worth looking at. I’ll probably be doing a deeper review of it in December.
In Car Terminal (ICT) is sold through CarTFT.com.
A project being run at Origamicar.com is worth looking at. Richard Morton has been developing an overlay package for UMPCs and although the project is quiet at the moment, I hear that he’s just got a new ultra mobile PC and he’ll be re-starting work very soon.
Other software :
Centrafuse from Flux Media – Frontend software. In beta at the moment.
RoadRunner – Frontend software. Similar to ICT
Microsoft Streets and Trips / Autoroute is supposed to have some UMPC/touch enhancements in it.
Accessories.
What we’re really missing for UMPCs at the moment is mounting solutions. ProClip USA are my focus of attention at the moment but I’d like to see others coming out with solutions. Especially the ultra mobile PC vendors. Streetdeck have a prototype R2H cup holder which is shown on Ricardos blog. It looks like a good idea – if you have a cup holder – but there needs to be other solutions.
A Bluetooth A2DP receiver is a tidy way to get audio into your Car hifi. Like this one from Nokia or this Bluetooth cassette adaptor (which looks a bit cheap and doesn’t seem to be available any more.) An FM transmitter is possible but I don’t recommend it due to the poor sound quality. If you’re going to enable digital sound and video in your car go for a wired or digital wireless connection if possible. (Not the Bluetooth headset profile. Its very low quality.)
For a tidier solution, there are some Bluetooth-enabled head-ends for you car. Pioneer do one. I like this idea. Expensive though! Parrot also make one and there are others in development.
Links.
Someone has already done a great job of providing links for carputers here at Letscommunicate.co.uk
MP3car.com is the biggest forum although Digital-Car.co.uk is also busy.
For Carputer related products, take a look at CarTFT.com
Thoughtfix often writes about UMPCs and carputers and Eeaston is also doing similar things on his blog.
There are one or two threads at Origamiproject.com worth reading. This one talks about a car mount for a Q1.
And that’s about it for the Carputer day at Carrypad. I’ve learnt a lot while researching the posts today and I hope you have too. There’s plenty more to learn but the best way to do that is learning by doing. If you have any carputer/ultra mobile PC related links or information, drop me a line as I’d love to know about them.
